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View Full Version : Does anyone use Dvorak?



Pandemic187
January 24th, 2008, 09:53 PM
I'm just wondering if I'm the only one who uses this keymap. There are a few other threads on here about it, but they are pretty old. I still use Qwerty; I dual-boot my laptop so that Windows uses Qwerty and Ubuntu uses Dvorak, mainly because some people have given me crap for using Dvorak. I must say though, it's really superior to Qwerty. Even if you don't see a noticeable gain in speed, using it just feels better. I suppose that if you are a busy person that would not be a good reason to switch; you would need to see a speed increase. But I was a high school student home on summer vacation when I learned it, and I must say I love it! So I'm just wondering if anyone else uses it as well.

Nevon
January 24th, 2008, 09:57 PM
I am a very bored/boring person at times, so of course I've thought about learning it. The problem is that I'm also a very lazy person, and learning a whole new keymap without being able to look at the keyboard for reference is just too damn hard.

Pandemic187
January 24th, 2008, 10:02 PM
When I learned it, I actually used a desktop keyboard and rearranged all the keys on the keyboard to match the Dvorak layout. Some people have used on-screen keyboards, but that seems cumbersome to me. Either way, it's great once you learn it!

Also, I'm keymap bilingual now, so I have no problem switching between keymaps.

billgoldberg
January 24th, 2008, 10:03 PM
What is dvorak?

I use azerty, qwerty just doesn't feel right, mainly because it wouldn't match my keyboard buttons.

fedex1993
January 24th, 2008, 10:05 PM
Who doesnt use qwerty keyboard. I KNOW I DONT dvorak i love very much i just orderd a new type matrix keyboard in dvorak and i herd that typematrix swas good. My old model m dvorak board is what i call it failed on me :(. But yes i am starting to recomend a dvorak layout if you are a programer and also a normal typer.

Pandemic187
January 24th, 2008, 10:12 PM
What is dvorak?

I use azerty, qwerty just doesn't feel right, mainly because it wouldn't match my keyboard buttons.
Hmm, I've never heard of azerty. I'll look it up, and perhaps you should look dvorak up.

EDIT: I looked it up, and I see it's just Qwerty with the A and Q switched. Not surprising, but surely it's very similar to Qwerty in terms of usage.

The design puts fully 70 percent of all English keystrokes on the home row (only 32 percent of Qwerty's are on the home row), making Dvorak much easier, faster, and -- probably (no formal studies have been done as yet) -- less likely to result in carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive motion injuries.

There are about 5,000 words that can be typed on the home row alone. This compares to Qwerty’s mere 300, or so.
The result of these facts is that Qwerty just can't quite compare to Dvorak.

billgoldberg
January 24th, 2008, 10:32 PM
Hmm, I've never heard of azerty. I'll look it up, and perhaps you should look dvorak up.

EDIT: I looked it up, and I see it's just Qwerty with the A and Q switched. Not surprising, but surely it's very similar to Qwerty in terms of usage.


Mmm, strange. Actually there are alot more keys that are placed in another location.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Azerty_fr.svg/800px-Azerty_fr.svg.png

(don't get the wrong impression, i'm not french nor do I speak it as a main language)

Is this the dvorak keyboard you are talking about?
http://lundqvist.dyndns.org/sv_dvorak/sv_dvorak.gif

It seems a bit strange for me, but i'll give it a go once I buy one of those fancy keyboard wich buttons you can change easily next month.

Pandemic187
January 24th, 2008, 10:35 PM
Oh, silly me, I didn't look hard enough. Still, it's pretty similar to Qwerty.

LaRoza
January 24th, 2008, 10:36 PM
The QWERTY layout was designed to slow typist down, so the old typewriters wouldn't jam. It stuck with us,

Douglas Engelbart tried to change this with the NLS and chord keyboard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NLS_(computer_system)

Didn't work, people don't like change and relearning.

urukrama
January 24th, 2008, 10:54 PM
See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=408055

KThrace
January 24th, 2008, 11:03 PM
How come I only heard about Dvorak once I came into the Linux community?

Pandemic187
January 24th, 2008, 11:11 PM
How come I only heard about Dvorak once I came into the Linux community?
Perhaps Linux users are more open to what is not considered the "norm" in the computing world? I dunno. They certainly aren't directly related, though.

Metallinut
March 7th, 2008, 10:37 PM
I'm giving Dvorak a try right now. This post has taken me about three minutes to write...

I feel smarter already.

amar
March 7th, 2008, 10:52 PM
I switched in the other thread mentiond - loving it, never managed to touch type in qwerty - dvorak messes you up when you look down

pluviosity
March 7th, 2008, 11:22 PM
Me! Me! Me! I love Dvorak :)

I switched last summer, but I have maintained some level of Qwerty efficiency for my job, where I can't really use Dvorak without online converters. My hands definitely don't feel as stressed after heavy typing with Dvorak compared to Qwerty.

Billy_McBong
March 8th, 2008, 02:53 AM
i have been using Dvorak for about 6 months
it feels so much more natural than Qwerty

Dr Small
March 8th, 2008, 03:53 AM
Dvorak user here. :)
I may not be perfect yet, but I can't live without it now!

klange
March 8th, 2008, 04:08 AM
I type too fast in QWERTY to justify switching to anything else right now.

days_of_ruin
March 8th, 2008, 04:16 AM
I'm giving Dvorak a try right now. This post has taken me about three minutes to write...

I feel smarter already.

How can I try it?

Dr Small
March 8th, 2008, 04:30 AM
How can I try it?
For me, I simply run:

setxkbmap dvorak

And it changes it for my X session.

days_of_ruin
March 8th, 2008, 04:43 AM
How do I change it back?

Dr Small
March 8th, 2008, 04:46 AM
Change it back? What a thought. lol.
I think it is,

setxkbmap us

But if it isn't, a simple CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + BCKSPC will fix it, because it restarts X11.

Dr Small

days_of_ruin
March 8th, 2008, 04:52 AM
I am going to try tux typing :P

days_of_ruin
March 8th, 2008, 04:59 AM
shoot it crashed

Zarckon
March 10th, 2008, 12:41 PM
Just wanted to put in my two (2) cents worth on Dvorak. I've been using the system for close to twenty (20) years (getting old enough that I don't remember exactly when I started using it). Several authors that I liked praised the system so I thought I'd try it out. Started out by changing the key caps around and hunting and pecking. Went from about 25 wpm in QWERTY to about 3 wpm hunting and pecking. It took me about a month to get to where I could reasonably touch type in Dvorak. I got to where I could type about 50 wpm so doubled my pretty slow speed.

I had been getting wrist pain before changing over, nothing since. It's been available as an option since DOS days (I told you I was old). ******* has always had it available and every version of Linux I've used (currently using Kubuntu).

There is a left hand and right hand version for people with disabilities as well, so pretty flexible system.

Sounds like there are other systems available as well. Good. Just like operating systems more choice means that there is more likely something that will fit you as an individual.

And since there is some discussion about trying it out and changing back. . . In Kubuntu it's easy. All you have to do is go to system settings, then Regional & Language, enable keyboard layouts, choose English (maybe available in other languages, but that's all I type in), then pick it as a layout. You can set a keyboard shortcut so you can move back and forth between layouts and you're all set.

Good luck and have fun.

conehead77
March 10th, 2008, 02:49 PM
Im using DVORAK with Ubuntu, QWERTZ in Windows. Im still a little slow at typing, but i can do it without looking at the keys.
My gf uses my comp too, but its just a single click to change it back to normal. The only thing i dont like are the shortcuts; strg+c/v is much better with QWERTY imo. You can select a text with the mouse (right hand) and do strg+c/v with the left hand, thats not possible with DVORAK.
Also id like to remap the brackets and some other symbols for programming, havent figured out how thats possible yet.